Firearm Factory of the Month: Forehand and Wadsworth

This is another story that includes multiple gun companies and famous gun makers.....

To tell the story of Forehand and Wadsworth we need to go back to the man who got them into the gun business: Ethan Allen.

This Ethan Allen, born in Bellingham, MA in 1808 is not the Ethan Allen of Revolutionary War fame, in fact the two men were not at all related.

Ethan Allen was in the knife and tool making business in Milford, MA. In the later part of 1831 he moved his operation to nearby North Grafton to take advantage of a new factory that had recently been built on the Pratts Pond spillway (factories back then needed water to power the machines). 
During that same time, in the neighboring town of Upton, MA, a medical Doctor by the name of Roger N. Lambert, invented and patented a cane gun that would fire a .41 caliber bullet. Lambert needed someone to build the gun, enter Ethan Allen...…
In 1836, with a product to manufacture and a demand for it, he asked his brother in law Charles Thurber to invest in the new gun business.
They named their enterprise Allen & Thurber.
Soon Allen brought in his other brother-in-law Thomas Wheelock to work in the business.

In 1842/1843 they relocated the business to Norwich, Connecticut. 

That same year Thurber invented and received a patent for the first practical typewriter.
During this time the firm employed Thomas Bacon (who later started several arms companies) and Horace Smith of Volcanic and Smith & Wesson fame.

Their stay in Norwich  was brief and in 1847 they moved once again to the Marrisfield Industrial Complex in Worcester, MA. 

In 1854 a fire destroyed the complex and Allen & Thurber built the factory shown below at the intersection of Lagrange Street and the Norwich & Worcester Railroad. The smoke stack is probably from a coal fired steam plant to run the machinery.

In 1856 Charles Thurber retires. Allen takes on his other brother-in-law Thomas Wheelock as partner. The company was reorganized under the name Allen & Wheelock.
During the 1850's and 60's they produced a surprising number of models. Their products included single shot and double barrel pistols, 4, 5, & 6 shot Pepperbox pistols, single and double barrel shotguns, revolving cylinder rifles, both muzzle and breach loading rifle and over 20 revolver models with more than one hundred variations. All based on the patent granted to Ethan Allen.

Circa 1860 a man by the name of Sullivan Forehand becomes an employee of Allen & Wheelock. 
In 1863 Thomas Wheelock retires, around the same time Sullivan Forehand marries the daughter of Ethan Allen, becoming his son-in-law. The company is reorganized that year as Allen and Company.

In 1865 Henry Wadsworth also joins the company. Wadsworth was an officer in the Union Army during the war and upon his discharge came to Worcester to either court Allen's other daughter or work for Allen...or both. A short time later Wadsworth and Allen's second daughter are married. Now instead of Brothers-in-Law working with Allen, he has his sons-in law.

On January 7th, 1871 Ethan Allen dies at the age of 64. His partners and sons-in-law assume ownership of the company and reorganized it once more into Forehand and Wadsworth. 

In 1876 during a recession, Forehand purchased the old Tainter mill on the corner of Tainter and Gardner Street. The operations were moved there. The reasons for the move are unknown.

During the 1880s Forehand and Wadsworth made thousands of inexpensive revolvers. Many were trade arms, brand labeled for retailers around the country.
A good portion of these were of the "Suicide Special" variety, they carried names like "Bulldog", "Bulldozer", "Swamp Angel" and "Terror" pictured below:

In 1890 Henry Wadsworth sells his shares of the business to his brother-in-law and retires. Once again the company is reorganized as the Forehand Arms Company. If the gun below looks familiar, it should. This gun was most likely developed by Andrew Fyrberg, who also did design work for Hopkins and Allen, Harrington & Richardson and most notably Iver Johnson.

On June 7th, 1898 Sullivan Forehand dies from a heart attack, that came on while he was out fishing.

His two sons Frederick and Charles continued the business until 1902 when they sold out to rival gun maker (who also made guns under contract for Forehand Arms Co.) Hopkins and Allen. 
Strange coincidences...One of the new owners had a last name of Allen and were located in Norwich, where Allen & Thurber made guns for a time.

Time line of events

1803 - Charles Thurber is born
1808 - Ethan Allen is born
1813 - Thomas Wheelock is born
1830 - Sullivan Forehand is born
1831 - Allen begins making knives and tools in Grafton, MA
1837 - Allen & Thurber incorporated
1843 - Allen & Thurber relocates to Norwich, CT
1847 - Allen & Thurber relocate to Worcester, MA
1854 - Their factory space is burned in a fire
1854 - Allen & Thurber build a new factory on Gardner Street
1856 - Charles Thurber retires at the age of 53
1856 - The Company is reorganized as Allen & Wheelock
1860 - Sullivan Forehand joins Allen & Wheelock
1863 - Forehand marries Ethan Allen's daughter
1863 - Thomas Wheelock retires
1864 - Thomas Wheelock dies at the age of 51
1865 - Henry Wadsworth becomes a partner in the company when he marries the Ethan Allen's other daughter
1865 - The company is reorganized as Ethan Allen & Company
1871 - Ethan Allen dies at the age of 641871 - Forehand and Wadsworth assume control and reorganize the company as Forehand and Wadsworth

1890 - Wadsworth sells his shares in the company to Forehand
1890 - The company is once more reorganized as Forehand Arms Co.

1893 - Henry Wadsworth dies of Yellow Fever in Brazil
1898- Sullivan Forehand dies at the age of 67
1902 - Forehand family sells the company to rival Hopkins and Allen


What Remains

The Allen & Thurber factory in Grafton still stands. It is on the registry of historic places. It sits at 37 Waterville Street, Grafton, MA

I don't know the location of the one in Norwich. It is possible that their former Norwich location was later occupied by one of the many arms makers that popped up in that city following their departure. It could also be among the mill buildings at Yantic Falls (just up the river and out of frame of this map).

It is said that when Allen & Thurber left Norwich, they left behind many skilled workers, many of which started their own companies or went to work for the many upstarts.

I have not been able to find the former location of the Marrisfield Industrial Complex. I did find the location of the 1854 factory shown below:

The 1854 factory, according to the Proceeding of the Worcester Society of Antiquity, vol 16:"stood on Lagrange Street at its intersection with the Norwich and Worcester Railroad". The only building in the area that looks remotely like the drawing above was built in 1900. Most likely the original building was torn down due to fire or disrepair, possibly being the cause for the move in 1876.

The old Tainter Mill on Gardner Street sat a 42 Gardner Street, between Tainter and Hollis Streets. It is now a parking lot.

An overview of the area on Gardner street, known as "the junction" due to the junction of north/south and east/west railroads.

Sources

Waymarking

http://www.worcestermass.com/places/firearms.shtml
http://forehand-family.com/Home.html

https://gundigest.com/more/classic-guns/forehand-wadsworth-other-guys-deserve-mention

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forehand_%26_Wadsworth

https://connecticuthistory.org/norwichs-volcanic-past/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Thurber_(inventor)


Worcester Society of Antiquity, (1899), Worcester Society of Antiquity. Worcester, MA: F.S. Blanchard & Co.